When our main protagonist Panos (Prometheus Aleiferopoulos) enters the ominous town of Alyti, he’s informed that he’s the only and first ever doctor to reside there. Right off the bat, it’s clear that Entwined aims to weave us into its eerie trap. A “creepy town” horror film that transcends into “creepy woods” subgenre territory, Entwined often spins an intriguing web even if at times it gets caught up in it.
As Panos spends his time in Alyti, he collides with the townspeople who don’t rely on the familial medical procedures that Panos practices and instead prefer more spiritual healing processes. Their collision becomes a fascinating clash of medicinal ideologies as well as a collide in class since the people in Alyti are clearly uncomfortable with an affluent city slicker like Panos entering his way in a community that serves as their small bubble.
It’s an intriguing clash of ideologies that eventually becomes abandoned in favor of the aforementioned “creepy forest” storyline where Panos encounters the mysterious Danae (Anastasia-Rafaela Konidi), a woman who he previously ran into as he made his way to Alyti. Once Panos learns about Danae’s mysterious skin condition and tries helping her, he realizes she’s not as innocent as she appears and mysteriously becomes trapped in the forest she resides in.
As Panos feels encased within the woods, DP Thodoros Mihopoulos masterfully illustrates how his reality feels warped by initially giving the film a bleak color scheme before it slowly looks more serene. It’s as if Panos can’t tell whether he’s in his own personal Hell or Heaven. Although he may have fallen for the woman that put him under her spell, she still is a woman of likely ominous intentions and actress Anastasia-Rafaela Konidi does a sufficient job at playing up Danae’s mystique.
Prometheus Aleiferopoulos similarly serves his character well even if his co-star has the more interesting antagonistic role. Something that can be customary within the horror genre. In addition, actor John De Holland, who plays Panos’ distant half-brother George, injects enough profundity to keep one invested in the bond between the brothers despite it being rather underdeveloped.
All the actors do their part in elevating their characterizations within a screenplay that becomes undone by its attempt at juggling both genre and thematic ideas. That being said, with its attempts at creating subgenre distortions and aforesaid committed performances, Entwined nearly lives up to its potential.
